Supermarkets cause 'ghost towns'

HUNDREDS of communities in the South East are 'ghost towns' because of the mass closure of shops, banks and other High Street services, it was claimed today.

The opening of 'fake local' stores in villages and towns by big supermarkets such as Tesco and Sainsbury's is driving out long-established independent rivals, says the New Economics Foundation.

This, the independent think-tank says, is forcing more and more people to drive to big chain stores where prices are often higher than in the markets, butchers, bakers and greengrocers they have replaced.

The report - Ghost Town Britain II: Death On The High Street - says 50 specialist stores are closing a week, while one general store a day is shutting down. Banks, pubs and pharmacies are also vanishing.

The more independent stores that shut down, the less passing trade there is for survivors, the report says, creating a vicious circle of closures - and this leads to the loss of individuals who are active in community life.

'You don't get that from a spotty 17-year-old geek at a supermarket till,' says one person involved in the report.

Researchers find that a new Tesco Express or Sainsbury's Local means a loss of 30% to 40% of business for other shops. The 'big five' supermarkets chains account for more than 80% of food sold in Britain. Tesco accounts for a quarter.

One north London resident quoted in the report says: 'Sainsbury's Local might look like it has more choice but that is an illusion. There is a larger range of many products at my tiny Turkish local.'

Report co-author Andrew Simms said: 'We are witnessing the death of small, independent retailers. A retail feudalism is emerging as a handful of brands take over. Unless it is challenged, we will face a commercial one-party state.'

The problem is acute in the South East, the report says, because the large number of London commuters means much local money is spent in the capital.

But a Sainsbury's spokeswoman rejected the report, saying: 'We work with independent rural stores and have helped them increase sales by £1.5m in the past five years.'

A Tesco spokesman said: 'A Tesco store is more likely to stimulate the local economy than damage it.'

How local life is fading away

THE New Economics Foundation report says around 30,000 independent food, drink and tobacco retailers (about 40% of the total) have closed in the past decade.

This, claims the report, means the average person now covers the equivalent of Land's End to John O'Groats every year to buy food.

All three shops in Lower Higham, north Kent, have been killed off by supermarkets. Locals go to Medway town or Gravesend superstores.

A third of the banking network has been lost since 1992 and 800 communities have no bank. There is now a moratorium on closures.

Wheathampstead, Hertfordshire (population 5,000), lost its last bank, a Barclays, in 1999.

Around one in five post offices have shut since the early Eighties - 345 closed in the year to March.

Up to 20 traditional pubs close each month, according to the Campaign for Real Ale.

The Greater London Authority found 1,000 hectares of green space have been lost since 1989. School playing fields are being sold at the rate of one a week.